head to head · open source
compose vs Trigger
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars, 5,817 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Trigger has 16,324 stars, 1,462 forks, 342 open issues and last shipped yesterday. compose leads on adoption by 134% (38,175 vs 16,324 stars). compose is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Trigger is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. compose has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Trigger 9%. Trigger was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (orchestration), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| compose | Trigger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 16K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.8K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick compose if
- You weight community size — 38K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Trigger if
- You want the Trigger feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Trigger fits your workflow better
About compose
Docker Compose is an Apache 2.0 licensed Go tool that defines and runs multi container applications on Docker from a single Compose file, aimed at developers and operators who need several containers to start together as one isolated application.
read the full compose overview →
About Trigger
Trigger is an open source TypeScript platform for building and deploying AI agents and workflow tasks. It lives in the infrastructure, orchestration, and scheduling ecosystem, and it is positioned as a way to run long running AI tasks without typical serverless timeout constraints. The project provides a software development kit, a deployment target, and operational features such as retries, queues, observability, and elastic scaling.
read the full Trigger overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is compose or Trigger more popular?
compose has 38,175 GitHub stars and Trigger has 16,324. compose has the larger community by that measure.
Are compose and Trigger free?
Both are open source. compose is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Trigger under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between compose and Trigger?
compose is written in Go and Trigger in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, compose or Trigger?
Choose compose if you want the larger community (38,175 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Trigger if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.